Mickey Mouse
History Mickey made his debute in the 1928 silent short "Plane Crazy" the success of wich would safe Walt Disneys studio from bankruptcy and launch Disney on its way to what it is today. In comics Mickey Mouse started to appear in newspaper strips in the early 30's. In 1930 Floyd Gottfredson took over drawing the strip and took Mickey Mouse into what many fans believe to be its golden age. Instead of single panel gags Floyd put Mickey into long adventure stories that lasted for long stretches of time and as such was able to develop the character into something more than just a simple two dimensional gag driven character. Over time Mickey was also given a fairly large supporting cast to help carry the stories including Chief O'Hara, Eega Beeva and Mickeys arch nemesis the Phantom Blot. Character Development In his earliest appearances Mickey was quite a different character than what we think of him as today. In his early films he would have to be described as quite mischievous and at times even cruel. For example in "Plane Crazy " he ripped out the tail feathers on a turkey to use as a tail wing for his plane and in "Steamboat Willie " he used various barnyard animals such as a goat and a nursing pig as musical instruments. Even though many people were tried out to do the voice of Mickey eventually Walt Disney decided that he would do it himself. He would gon on to do Mickeys' voice untill Fantasia in 1940. In design he was very similar to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit with the main changes being the removal of Oswald long floppy ears in favor of the now famous circles. The overall design of Mickey was kepts simple in part out of necesity in order to enable Ub Iwerks to animate the early cartoons in a speedy fashion, Below you can see a comparison between three of Disney's earliest creation, Julius, Oswald and Mickey. The visual similarities between the three characters is quite clear. As would any similarities between the even earlier creation of Fritz the Cat the design of wich was quite clearly copied. julius2.jpg|Julius from the Alice Comedies|link=Julius Oswald.jpg|Oswald|link=Oswald the Lucky Rabbit mickey.jpg|Mickey in Steamboat Willie Friends and Enemy's Minnie Mouse From his very first cartoon "Plane Crazy " Mickey was given a girl to try and impress. On several occasions hes had to compete for her attention with his arch rival Black Pete. Pluto In the 1930 short "The Chain Gang" Mickey was introduced to Pluto , his pet dog and life long friend and companion. Tanglefoot In the 30's newspaper strips Mickey was frequently seen with his horse Tanglefoot . Black Pete Black Pete was Mickey's main rival. Mickey Mouse shorts After making his debut in "Plane Crazy"(1928) Mickey would go on to star in his own series of shorts all the way into the 50's. In the 30' he would often be teamed up with Donald Duck, Goofy and his dog Pluto. All of wich would go on to become stars of their own. Other characters he would occasionaly be teamed up with in the early 30's were Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow. However these characters were somewhat lacking in personality and in their ability to carry a story as a result as the films became more sofisticated they were used less and less untill they completely disapeared from the cartoons. List of Movie / TV Appearances *Plane Crazy (1928) *Steamboat Willie (1929) *Gallopin' Gaucho (1929) *The Karnival Kid (1929) *Mickey's Choo Choo (1929) *The Jazz Fool (1929) *The Chain Gang (1930) 1st app. Pluto *The Firefighters (1930) *Blue Rhythm (1931) *Orphan's Benefit (1934) *Fantasia (1940) *Mickey and the Beanstalk Newspaper Comics Mickey Mouse first appeared in newspaper comics in 1930. The first strips were initially written by Walt Disney himself and penciled by Ub Iwerks, however starting in May 1930 the duties of creating the daily strip was taken over by Floyd Gottfredson. Initially Gottfredson was only hired on what was supposed to be a temporary basis until a replacement could be found, however he ended up staying on the strip for some 45 years before retiring. In January Gottfredson also was put in the charge of the then new Mickey Mouse Sunday strips. Many Disney characters made their debuts in the Mickey Mouse strips including the Phantom Blot and Eega Beeva among many others. List of Mickey Mouse comic strip adventures * Lost on a Desert Island (1930) * Mickey Mouse in Death Valley (1930) * Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers (1930) * Mickey Mouse Music (1930) List of Comic Books (w/Mickey as the star) *Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse *Donald and Mickey *Mickey and Donald *Mickey Mouse (Dell) *Mickey Mouse (Gold Key / Whitman) *Mickey Mouse Magazine *Mickey Mouse Comics Digest *Mickey Mouse Adventures (Digest) *Mickey Mouse (Russian) *Micky Maus (German) List of Guest Apearances Category:Characters in "Mickey Mouse" Category:Characters